Cockerill's 'Escape' on Display

artist, Ann Cockerill is included in a Juried Exhibition, Celebrating  Georgia Women Artists. Eighty works, juried from 243 entries, all contemporary artworks are on view at the Mable House Arts Center at Historic Mable House.

Her oil painting entitled "Escape" was painted from a study she had done in Vernazza which is part of Cinque Terra (five towns built on the edge of the mountains on the north west coast of Italy). This was the beach at Vernazza.

Cockerill explained, "It was indeed a great escape to a place where life is  a little slower and so beautiful! Recently there was a terrible flood and mudslide that destroyed much of the town. In a news video on utube, I actually saw the little blue boat engulfed in mud and carried out to sea. Many lost their lives but those who remained quickly went about the hard work of digging the mud away and rebuilding. Even paradise has its snake but these strong wonderful people have lasted through many earthquakes, floods, and disasters for thousands of years and will continue on."

The award-winning artist and her husband Bill (who has also won numerous awards for his pottery) are owners of the Red Cockerill Gallery in Austell. They reside in "Beulahland," Douglasville, 18 acres of beautiful woods and stream inspiring many works.

She is currently working on a large painting of the stream for Tranquility Hospice Chapel in Marietta. Four of her life-size portraits of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Marquis de LaFayette, and James Oglethorpe, are in the Old Capitol of Georgia, in Milledgeville. Always interested in history and the people and places that make that history, she is known for her local landmarks preserving "the way things were."

Cockerill teaches art at the gallery, for more information call 770-944-3160 or email annCockerill@bellsouth.net.